"Has Maddalena broken her legs—Madonna!" burst forth Gaspare.
"Come along, Gaspare!" said Maurice, hastily.
He bade good-bye to the fisherman and his daughter, and set off with Gaspare through the trees.
"Be nice to Salvatore," said Maurice, as they went down towards the rocky wall.
"But he wants to make you give him a donkey, signorino. You do not know him. When he is with you at the fair he will—"
"Never mind. I say, Gaspare, I want—I want that day at the fair to be a real festa. Don't let's have any row on that day."
Gaspare looked at him with surprised, inquiring eyes, as if struck by his serious voice, by the insisting pressure in it.
"Why that day specially, signorino?" he asked, after a pause.
"Oh, well—it will be my last day of—I mean that the signora will be coming back from Africa by then, and we shall—"
"Si, signore?"